This article was originally published July 2023 and has been reposted with updates.
Wizards of the Coast Recently published stat blocks for all of the main characters from the movie Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among thieves. You can find those stat blocks for free on D&D Beyond. I’ve had the pleasure of running these stat blocks, and I’ll share my opinions on them below. In general, though, I have to say that players love fighting against these characters.
Doric
In the movie, our moon druid Doric is able to do something that your rules-as-written (RAW) druid is not able to do. She can change shape into a monstrosity, specifically an owl bear. The stat block doesn’t call this Wild Shape, which is fair because it doesn’t function a like Wild Shape in a critical way. Whereas a Wild Shaped druid takes the hit points of the creature it shapes into, and only takes damage to their hit points when they exceed the number of hit points of the shape, Doric does not. She has one stack of hit points: when they’re gone, they’re gone. As a result, although it’s great she can become an owlbear, she doesn’t have much legs as a front-line fighter.
Edgin Darvis
Based on how Edgin is depicted in the movie, I can imagine that putting together a stat block for him was a bit of a challenge. He’s a bard, even though we don’t necessarily see much from him in the way of bardic abilities in the movie. This stat block is written in the new style of stat blocks where long spell lists avoided. Many things that would have been spells have been converted to actions.
Edgin has a reinforced lute and a shortsword, both of which deal thunder damage, and all of his bard-adjacent abilities have a 60 foot range. In my first attempt to run him, I didn’t think of him as a short-range combatant, instead keeping him in the back to act in a support role. Don’t make the same mistake when you put him in an encouter, get him out front.
Forge Fitzwilliam
I wasn’t sure what to expect from forge, and I don’t think that the stat-block writers were either. What we get is a rogue with a heavy crossbow that deals poison damage, and imposes disadvantage on the target’s next attack roll until the beginning of Forge’s next turn. He can also use a bonus action to dodge, dash, hide, or grant himself advantage on his next attack roll using his cunning ability.
I really like using forge. He’s a great back line character that can give combat some tactical texture. With the ability to attack up to 400 feet without disadvantage by using the cunning ability to negate that disadvantage imposed by long range. The imposition of disadvantage on a hit or miss makes him really feel as though he’s supporting the melee fighters, not just sniping from long range.
Holga Kilgore
Holga is probably my favorite character from the movie, and the biggest disappointment of these stat blocks. Although she has reckless, she lacks any other analogues to barbarian abilities. In particular, the lack of Rage, and/or the resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage that comes along with it are a real problem. She does get resistance to lightning damage from the Darksteel Axe, but that’s not enough. In the combats I ran with her, she was the first to go down, and only dealt limited damage.
On the upside, she does get 40 feet of movement per turn, helping her get in close a little faster. She gets the ability to attempt to shove other creatures as a bonus action. The shove only moves the creature, but the only effect is to move them five feet. I would have really liked to see this ability be able to prone an opponent. As it is, maybe be sure to give Holga some elevated set-pieces to push your players off of.
Simon Aumar
The sorcerer gets Chaos Bolt, which functions much like Chromatic Orb. It is shorter range, only 60 ft. It’s damage type is selected at random, but includes force, psychic and thunder as possibilities.
He can also use Sheltering Shield 3 times a day. This effect is triggered as a reaction when he or another creature within 10 ft. would take damage. Creatures inside the sphere have resistance to the triggering damage type. It just occurred to me on this read through of the stat block that the text doesn’t specify when this effect ends.
Simon also has Bigby’s Hand and Magic missile as spells. I wasn’t impressed with his offensive capabilities the first two times I ran him. I’m interested in giving him a second shot after a review of his stat block.
Sofina
Sofina is the strongest character included in the set, with a CR of 15. Although I would expect her to be on par in a lot of ways with an Archmage (CR 12), I find she falls short in a lot of ways.
Although she has more Hit Points, she lacks all of the resistances that an archmage would have, including the resistances to spell damage, non-magical physical damage, psychic damage. This makes her effective hit points significantly lower.
The star of the show here is her Swarm of Meteors ability, which is a scaled down version of Meteor Swarm. Although it is a magical ability, it is not a spell, and so can’t be counterspelled. She can use time stop, as she did in the movie, although it functions as a standard D&D timestop. Otiluke’s resilient sphere is a nice addition to her spell list as well.
Xenk Yendar
Last but not least, our Paladin, Xenk. Clocking in at a CR 10, he’s the second highest CR after Sofina. Again, I think he’s way underpowered. His AC is 15, making him a pretty easy target for and appropriately leveled party. He has Cleansing Touch, which lets him heal another creature for 27 hit points. That’s pretty good, but he can only do it once a day. I’d like to see him with a much higher AC, and the ability to do a good bit more healing.
His Daggersword is interesting. It can change between to separate forms. One allows him to make a 30 ft. ranged attack, while the other allows him to attack all enemies within 10 feet. He can only do one of these a turn. His ability to attack at range is limited in both range and number of attacks. I’d definitely like to see him able to attack at range more effectively. Ranged PCs will be able to hammer the Honor Among Thieves crew at long range without retalition.
That’s all for now. You can find our magic item prices for the Honor Among Thieves items here.
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